Documentary Filmmaker Seeks Global Recognition For Freedom House, Pioneers of Paramedic Services
The Brief History of the rise and fall of the Freedom House Ambulance Service
Paramedic and documentary filmmaker Gene Starzenski will seek international recognition from civic, medical, historical, and cultural associations for a Pittsburgh-based anti-poverty program which became the nation's first paramedic emergency unit in the late 1960s. “The story of Freedom House paramedics is amazing and the staff should be honored in medical and black history as pioneers,” said Starzenski, a former Pittsburgh resident who had once applied to the organization in the 70s. “Freedom House was made up of largely unemployed, untrained, low-income African-Americans, yet they changed the face of emergency care forever and contributed to saving thousands of lives.”
In the Sixties, ambulance attendants and police officers, without specialized training or emergency equipment, routinely delivered critical accident victims and the gravely ill to the hospital with little or no medical attention.
Starzenski, who in 1973 applied to become a Freedom House staff member but was turned down due to lack of funding, said he has completed production of the documentary entitled, “Freedom House Street Saviors” which brings alive it’s history and tells the story of the people involved.
The documentary interviews several founding Freedom House staff members, some who went on to careers with the City of Pittsburgh, and others who did not - some ending up back on the streets where they began. The documentary also includes exclusive footage with the program’s medical supervisor, Dr. Peter Safar, just prior to his death. Safar, also considered the father of CPR, supervised the Freedom House staff, training and outfitting of its paramedic Mobile Intensive Care Units through Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian-University and Mercy Hospitals. Under Safar’s direction, Freedom House EMT’s tested and implemented the U.S. Department of Transportation’s standards for ambulance training and equipment eventually adopted by 40 states and used as a model worldwide.
Freedom House Ambulance Service began as a non-profit venture between Freedom House Enterprises, a city-funded food delivery jobs program, and Presbyterian-University Hospital serving Pittsburgh’s low-income Hill District and Oakland neighborhoods. Of Freedom House’s original members, nearly half had only finished ninth grade while others required basic reading and math skills before starting their training as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). During its eight-year history, Freedom House trained nearly 81 EMT’S and its paramedics were judged among the most sophisticated and skilled in the nation. By the program’s end, several staff members had earned bachelor’s degrees, a few had master’s degrees, and three were in pre-med.
In 1975, Pittsburgh decided to run its own mobile intensive care service, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), rather than continue funding the independent, non-profit Freedom House Enterprises. The city did sign an agreement to provide jobs to all interested Freedom House Paramedics without requiring recertification, The city offered a training program for basic level paramedics with an opportunity to repeat the course in the event of failure, and agreed to employ and train Freedom House dispatchers.
“Freedom House staff members were arguably the best trained, most experienced paramedics in the world,” Starzenski said. “But when it came time to actually begin the city’s EMS program, city officials broke all their promises. Instead, they required all Freedom House Paramedics to complete the city’s own course which did not meet federal standards. If members failed the coursework, they were out.
Only 12 of 26 staff members who agreed to go through the city’s program (or face immediate dismissal) were eventually hired by the new city EMS Service; the rest were unemployed. Dispatchers were assigned as guards in the city jail. “I believe the City of Pittsburgh has a historical debt to pay.
Starzenski also claims that Medical Associations and the Health Care Professions have overlooked Freedom House Paramedics’ contributions. “As of last year, there is no mention of the Freedom House Paramedics in any of the training materials for Paramedics. “That’s an outrage which this documentary seeks to remedy.” www.freedomhousedoc.com
